1、Robinson Crusoe CHAPTER I - START IN LIFE I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a for- eigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived af- terwards at York, fr
2、om whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good fam- ily in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in Eng- land, we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my companio
3、ns always called me. I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieuten- ant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more
4、than my father or mother knew what became of me. Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school
5、 generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the Free eBooks at Planet eB entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends,
6、that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me. My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and ex- cellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was
7、 con- fined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving fathers house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and indu
8、stry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspir- ing, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves fa- mous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these thing
9、s were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the l
10、abour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, am- bition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that ki
11、ngs have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they Robinson Crusoe had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimo- ny to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have
12、 neither poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the few- est disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind;
13、nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, lux- ury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by
14、the nat- ural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the hand- maids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and
15、all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embar- rassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed wit
16、h per- plexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sen- sibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter;
17、 feeling Free eBooks at Planet eB that they are happy, and learning by every days experience to know it more sensibly, After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most af- fectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the sta- tion of life
18、 I was born in, seemed to have provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my
19、 mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus dis- charged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he
20、would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persua- sions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires
21、prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there
22、might be none to assist in my recovery. I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know Robinson Crusoe it to be so himself - I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my broth- er who
23、 was killed: and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he could say no more to me. I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be otherwise? and I resolved
24、not to think of go- ing abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my fathers desire. But alas! a few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my fathers further importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily
25、as the first heat of my resolution prompted; but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my f
26、ather had better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that I was now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my time, but I should certainly run away from my master before my time was
27、 out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go no more; and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the time that I had lost. This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she knew it wo
28、uld be to no purpose to speak to my father upon Free eBooks at Planet eB any such subject; that he knew too well what was my inter- est to give his consent to anything so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father, and suc
29、h kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I should never have their con- sent to it; that for her part she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to s
30、ay that my mother was willing when my father was not. Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, That boy might be happy if he would stay at ho
31、me; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was born: I can give no consent to it. It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expos- tulated
32、with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my incli- nations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time; but, I say, being there, and one of my companions being about t
33、o sail to London in his fathers ship, and prompting me to go with them with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them Robinson Crusoe to hear of it as th
34、ey might, without asking Gods blessing or my fathers, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for Lon- don. Never any young adventurers misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued lon
35、ger than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how just
36、ly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my fathers house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my fathers tears and my mothers entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it ha
37、s since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father. All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was enough to affect me then, who was
38、 but a young sailor, and had nev- er known anything of the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; in this agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions tha
39、t if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my Free eBooks at Planet eB father, and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself into such mis- eries as t
40、hese any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my fath
41、er. These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted, and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night
42、 the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charm- ing fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that ever I saw. I had
43、slept well in the night, and was now no more sea- sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had enticed
44、me away, comes to me; Well, Bob, says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, how do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted, wernt you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind? A capful dyou call it? said I; twas a terrible storm. A storm, you fool you, replies he; do you call that a storm? w
45、hy, it was nothing at all; give Robinson Crusoe 10 us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but youre but a fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and well forget all that; dye see what charming weather tis now? To make short this s
46、ad part of my story, we went the way of all sailors; the punch was made and I was made half drunk with it: and in that one nights wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the future. In a word, as the sea was re- turned to its smoothness
47、 of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I f
48、ound, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endea- vour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits - for so I c
49、alled them; and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse; for if I would not take t
